Maximum number of IDE drives.

[jayhay]

Is there a maximum of only four drives allowed on a PC?
That is, a master and slave on the primary IDE connector of the
motherboard and the same on the secondary connector.
I have a new ZIP drive and don't know how to install it because I've
got two HDs on the primary, and a fast CD reader and a burner on the
secondary.
Please help.

 

[John Weiss]

Is there a maximum of only four drives allowed on a PC?
That is, a master and slave on the primary IDE connector of the
motherboard and the same on the secondary connector.

In general, yes. You'll have to buy a PCI card, or connect it via USB2 or
Firewire (internal or external) with the appropriate adapter/case.

 

[Bob Knowlden]

You can use more than 4 IDE drives, but IDE controllers support only up to
two drives per channel, as you've seen.

One solution would be to install a PCI IDE controller card. An inexpensive
example is the Promise Ultra100TX2.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16816102026

It's an old card, but it supports LBA48 drives (>137 GB) and has drivers for
XP. It has two controllers, so it would allow you to use up to 8 drives in
your system.

It may be best to put the fixed drives on the Promise card and removables on
the mainboard's controllers.


Address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

 

[Mike Hollywood]

I heard that if you run xp off one of these controller cards, and
then build a new computer, you can just move the card and
drive to the new one and it works.

Is there any truth to that?

 

[David Maynard]

I heard that if you run xp off one of these controller cards, and
then build a new computer, you can just move the card and
drive to the new one and it works.

Is there any truth to that?

It's a half truth, or rather the fraction is smaller than that.

The way that's said suggests you can just move the card/drive and, viola,
everything works in the new PC. No.

What it will do is BOOT, maybe, since the IDE driver for that CARD is
installed but even that is not assured depending on what chipset the old
and new motherboards have. Like, is the PCI bus, that the card is plugged
INTO, going to work?

Quite likely nothing on the new motherboard would have the right drivers
for the base chipset (including PCI), sound, LAN, or anything else on it
and if it can't talk to the PCI bus then it can't talk to the cards plugged
into it, whether they have the 'right driver', or not.

At any rate, whether it booted or not you'd need to do at least a repair
install for everything else so it doesn't really get you anything to hope
the add-on card/drive boots.

 

[spodosaurus]

Is there a maximum of only four drives allowed on a PC?
That is, a master and slave on the primary IDE connector of the
motherboard and the same on the secondary connector.
I have a new ZIP drive and don't know how to install it because I've
got two HDs on the primary, and a fast CD reader and a burner on the
secondary.
Please help.

Buy a PCI IDE add on card and get more IDE connectors.

Ari

--
spammage trappage: replace fishies_ with yahoo

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/

 

[BruceM]

Yeah. Pop in 3 PCI cards & get an extra 12 connections.

 

[spodosaurus]

Yeah. Pop in 3 PCI cards & get an extra 12 connections.

I've got an extra 2 PCI IDE cards in this box Soon I'll need a more
powerful PSU.


--
spammage trappage: replace fishies_ with yahoo

I'm going to die rather sooner than I'd like. I tried to protect my
neighbours from crime, and became the victim of it. Complications in
hospital following this resulted in a serious illness. I now need a bone
marrow transplant. Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow
transplant, too. Please volunteer to be a marrow donor:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/